monthly letter : month twenty

Dear Arwen,



By the time this letter is up, we're are in the midst of enjoying our short vacation back in Pekan and Kuantan, visiting Mak Tok and Tok Bah. And we are, right at this moment, spending some time at the beach, watching you play and eat sand and chasing after the waves. And i'll be taking a lot of photos which will be posted along with next month's letter. I hope you'll always feel this way about the ocean and take it like you would with life - never be afraid of its vastness and the unknown and will always look towards the horizon full of awe, wonder and anticipation.





Your development from here on out will mostly be in the talking and thinking part. You're such a fast learner that you'd only hear things once and just repeat after. you're like an echo! which is good at this point in time and will be annoying in a few years to come. You love singing and dancing and playing with your uncles' guitar and drum sticks and 'acting' in front of the mirror so much that i think you might have a strong inclination towards the performing arts. i know it's too soon to tell but i have good intuition about these things.





we've been pushing you with words and alphabets and would only stress on the numbers part as we climb up stairs. sometimes, i would forget to count the steps that you'd start it for me. you can already recognize the numbers 5, 8, 4 and 3 from as early as 17 months, but it's just now that i taught you how to count using your fingers. you'd start with your palm closed and you'll try to lift your fingers one by one but you'd only manage to lift till one. and the you'll count out loud "ONE! TUU! POPEYE!"





You can also sing the whole ABC tune correctly. you get the song right but the lyrics need a lot of practice. Whenever you read a book or read something, you'd sing "A. B. C. D. B. C. B. Na na pi ti gee da dee .... " i would correct you occasionally but it's just that i love to hear you sing it in your own interpretation so much that i feel like i'd strip away your innocence if i correct you.





You call your Papangah "Mo" for the past 2-3 months. i forgot to put this in the previous letter. it's really weird because you know who we mean of we mention "PapaNgah" or "Falie" or "Fadz" but when we ask you, you'd call him "Mo" and we'll just take that and follow your lead. Papaiz is "Baiz" and Aunty Ili is "Alee", OmaNyang is "Oyang". Aunty is "Atee" and Uncle is "Ateng".





Your other huge milestone this month is your ability to say I love you. Everytime we say i love you, you'd give us a hug and say "I lo chi". sometimes you'd tug our heartstrings and say it first out of the blue. You'd go "i lo chi" and we'd say "I love you too" and you'd repeat back with "i lo chi too". Every time you see a heart shape printed on clothes, or in the TV, or anywhere for that matter, you'd say "I Lo Chi". we hear the words from you so much around the house that we're starting to see that there is in fact a lot of love in the house. thank you for opening my eyes to that, sayang.





I Lo Chi,
Mamma.